Then he heard a bang and a loud crack, and looked up to see a dark shape descending rapidly toward him. One of the creatures was in the shaft. Moon gasped a curse and dropped. He plunged down and caught himself just at the bottom of the chimney.
As he stood in the hearth, he saw the creature stop abruptly, still some distance above him. The stupid thing is stuck, he thought incredulously. And it was cutting off any chance of retreat up through the shaft. Hissing in frustration, he ducked to climb down out of the hearth basin.
At just that moment he heard voices and footsteps, about to turn through the door into the common room. By instinct Moon shifted. But when his claws vanished, he lost his footing on the edge of the hearth and tumbled to the floor.
Esom and Karsis stepped into the doorway just in time to see Moon roll across the tile. They stopped, staring. Esom demanded, “What are you doing?”
“Nothing.” Moon sat up on one elbow and glanced warily back at the hearth. A little soot trickled down, but no creature appeared. It must be jammed tightly in the shaft.
“Were you—” Karsis looked at the hearth, then at Moon, obviously taking in the soot stains on his clothes and hands. At least his face wasn’t covered with monster blood, though there had to be flecks of it all over him. He had been counting on a chance to thoroughly clean off his scales in his room before he shifted. She shook her head in disbelief at her own theory. “You couldn’t have been—”
“What do you mean, nothing?” Esom persisted. “Why were you standing on the—”
Moon pushed to his feet, half-ready to answer Esom’s question by hitting him in the head. Then far down the hall the stairwell door crashed open. He heard shouts and footsteps as the guards swarmed in. That’s that, Moon thought. He couldn’t retreat up the chimney, and there was no other way out of this level. He should have tried to go up and out when he had the chance. He said, quietly, “Get away from me.”
“What?” Esom blinked in confusion but Karsis took his arm and tugged him back.
Several guards burst into the room, their javelins and small crossbow weapons held ready. They all looked angry, and the anger had an even more dangerous tinge of fear. “Was it here? Did you see it?” one shouted. Others raced by in the hall toward the other guest quarters.
“See what?” Esom said, sounding affronted. “We’ve been locked up here. Of course we didn’t see anything!”
Then the guards hastily made way and Ardan walked into the room. Moon had expected him to be angry, but Ardan’s expression was grimly pleased. The realization was like a dash of icy water. He suspected all along, Moon thought, eyes narrowed. And now he knows.
Watching Moon carefully, Ardan said, “So you’ve been exploring. I wonder why.”
Karsis said quickly, “No, he was in his room, we went there to speak to him. We came out here to talk—”
“Quiet.” Ardan didn’t spare her a glance.
Moon bared his teeth in something that might possibly be interpreted as a smile. “You don’t look surprised.”
“Let’s say I was hopeful.” Ardan’s smile was dry. “I have someone I’d like you to meet.”
Another groundling came down the hall, light footsteps at a deliberate pace. The guards stirred uneasily.
“It’s him,” Esom muttered and glanced toward the door in fearful anticipation. “That’s all we need.”
Karsis said, low-voiced, to Moon, “Watch out, he’s dangerous. He’s not what he seems—”
Moon stopped listening when the newcomer stepped into the doorway. He was younger than Moon, with a slim build, light bronze skin, and dark hair, sharp features. He wore a loose light shirt and dark brown pants of the local fishskin cloth, but his feet were bare.
Despite it all, Moon had a moment of doubt. Then their eyes met and he knew for certain. Well, that does explain a lot, he thought, suddenly cold with fury. How Ardan had found the tree, how he had known about the seed. He hadn’t even needed a flying ship to get inside the colony tree’s high knothole entrance.
The man turned to Ardan, fury twisting his handsome features. “Why didn’t you tell me about this? Were you planning to play us off each other? Get rid of me?”
Ardan turned to him in fond exasperation. “Of course not. I wasn’t certain what he was. I wanted to be sure before I told you.” Of course Ardan had suspected Moon all along; with a live Raksura in groundling form at hand to compare him to, he could hardly help but be suspicious. Add to that Moon’s knowledge of the mysterious ruin, his questions about the seed. Ardan looked at Moon. “This is Rift, my friend and guide.” He managed the Raksuran pronunciation without difficulty. “I assume your name is not Niran.”
“It’s Moon, of the Indigo Cloud Court.” Karsis and Esom stared at him, Karsis in astonished realization and Esom in growing horror. “That’s the colony tree you stole the seed from.”
Rift twitched, and hissed. “You’re lying. It was empty. It was a dead court.”
“It’s not empty now,” Moon said. “You led him to the seed, you know what that means.”
Ardan watched them with a narrow, speculative gaze. He said, “Rift, calm yourself. I thought you would be pleased, to have another member of your race here.”
Moon snorted. Ardan obviously didn’t know as much about Raksura as he thought.
Rift grimaced in disgust at Ardan. He shifted, his groundling body vanishing in a dark mist, resolving into a warrior with dark green scales. He flared out his spines, and snarled in Raksuran, “You’re lying. That colony tree was abandoned. I don’t know what you want here, but if you want to live, go away. Now.”
Moon barred his teeth. He thinks he’s looking at another warrior. In groundling form, it was hard to tell young consorts from male warriors. Until it was too late. Moon said, “Come and get me.”
Rift sprang toward him. Moon shifted, flared his spines out, and lunged forward. They grappled, tumbled across the room, slammed down onto a bench, bounced off a pillar supporting the chimney. Moon was bigger, stronger, and much more angry. He barely felt the smaller warrior’s claws.
Around them, groundlings shouted and fled. Rift’s growls went up in pitch as he realized he was overmatched. Wrenching free, Rift tried to bolt. Moon caught him again and flung him toward the knot of guards in the opposite doorway. They scattered as the warrior slammed through them. Claws scraping the floor, Rift scrambled away down the corridor. Moon jumped over two fallen guards, bounced off the ceiling, and pelted after him. Moon was peripherally aware of running, shouting, confusion, but the only thing he could see was Rift.
Rift slammed through an archway into another small sitting room just as Moon caught him. He grabbed Rift’s spines and yanked him around. Rift clawed for Moon’s eyes but Moon slammed him down to the floor. Kneeling on the warrior’s chest, he seized him by the throat. Then Rift croaked, “Don’t. Please.”
Moon, just about to tighten his grip and rip Rift’s throat out, growled in pure frustration. He was breathing hard, his skin stinging from scratches on his hands, arms, and chest that had penetrated his scales. Rift’s eyes pleaded, and Moon couldn’t kill him. “Where’s the seed?”
He gasped, “I don’t know. He took it away, out of the tower— Watch out!”
Moon twisted in time to see a guard in the doorway, lifting his little crossbow. Moon snapped out his right wing in a sharp punch. He struck the man in the chest with the tip and flung him backward.
Taking advantage of the moment of distraction, Rift said quickly, “I’ll show you the way out, through the bottom of the tower. The barrier stops at the ground.”
Shouts and crashing echoed from up the corridor. Ardan shouted, “Where are they?”
“You swear it’s not here,” Moon hissed.
“I swear.” Rift’s eyes burned with sincerity. “He took it away somewhere.”
There wasn’t much of a choice. Moon let Rift go and rolled to his feet. More guards rushed the door, and Moon slammed through them, knocking them sprawling. Rift j
umped over his head, clung to the ceiling, then leapt down the hall. Moon tore after him and rounded the corner just as a chorus of crossbow bolts clattered against the stone wall.
He caught up with Rift in the foyer as three of the bulbous guardcreatures barreled in through the stairwell doorway. Rift threw himself at the first, hands and feet ripping at its face. The other two tried to crowd past. Moon jumped and landed on top of the first one’s head. He slashed at the clawed hands that reached for him and dove forward, over their heads and out the doorway. Out in the stairwell, he whipped around and ripped open the back of the one still trapped in the door. All three creatures roared. Ardan’s groundling guards, stuck in the foyer with their path blocked, shouted. Then Rift tore his way out over the creatures’ heads.
Rift bounded down the stairs, Moon right behind him. But Rift turned off at the next landing and slammed through a door. Moon hesitated. It led into a foyer and hall not much different from the one they had just escaped. Rift stopped to whisper, “This way—we can’t go down the main stairs. He’ll order his men to shoot us.”
Moon’s nerves were as tight as wire at the idea of trusting Rift, but he heard the guard-creatures clumping down the stairs, and there was no time to argue. He ducked through the door, dragged it closed behind him, and ran after Rift.
They passed more doors, a confusing maze of empty rooms, then Rift took a smaller door into a plain room that held only a big iron stove. It was almost as tall as Moon, but cold and dusty with disuse.
Rift climbed up to stand atop it, and explained, “This makes heat for the bathing rooms above. They only use it when it gets cold.”
A copper-sheathed chimney led up from it, and for a moment Moon thought Rift meant them to escape through that. It looked far too small and it was going the wrong direction. But there was a grate in the wall behind it, and Rift pried it open with his claws. It opened into a much larger shaft that led down through the wall of the tower. A cool breeze flowed from it, carrying the faint odors of outside air. “This is for ventilation,” Rift said as he climbed inside. “Ardan doesn’t know I’ve been down here.”
“Then why didn’t you escape before?” Moon followed him reluctantly. There were so many things he didn’t like about this that he couldn’t settle on which was the worst.
Rift hung from chinks in the wall, let Moon get through and then, one-handed, he tugged the grate back into place. “I didn’t have anywhere to go.”
Moon helped him pull the grate closed, which left the shaft with only the small amount of dappled vapor-light that shone through the bars. “What court are you from?”
Rift eyed him uncertainly as he clung to the grate. “I don’t have a court. I was traveling alone.”
Moon’s spines snapped up, his first impulse a renewed fury. He’s lying, he’s lying to make me think— Except Rift couldn’t know anything about Moon’s past.
Rift shrunk back against the wall at Moon’s reaction. Moon made himself lean back, settle his spines. He started to climb down and after a moment, Rift hurried to catch up. Moon asked, “How did you get here?”
Rift hesitated, as if afraid to provoke another angry reaction. It was already too dark to read his expression. He answered, “I came here a couple of turns ago, not by choice. I was traveling along the eastern shore and got caught in a storm. I got blown out to sea and couldn’t fly against the wind. I was exhausted, about to fall out of the sky, and I saw a trading ship. I landed on it. They locked me in the hold, chained me up, and brought me here to sell me to Ardan.” He took a sharp breath. “I know I should have let myself drown, but I wanted to live.”
Moon had wanted to give up more times than he could remember, and he was ten turns older than Rift, at least. He muttered, “You shouldn’t have let yourself drown.” He heard Rift miss a handhold and scrabble to recover. Moon added, “You’re lucky Ardan didn’t stuff you and stick you in his exhibit.”
“He had other plans,” Rift said, still sounding wary.
Moon clamped his claws into the stone and waited until Rift drew even with him. Going by sound and instinct, he grabbed Rift’s shoulder and felt the young warrior’s spines flatten into instant submission. He said, “You went to the Reaches with him. You led him to the Indigo Cloud tree. You could have escaped any time while the groundlings were traveling through the forest.”
Rift wriggled to get away, then made himself stop. He said tightly, “I didn’t want to leave him then. He was kind to me. He helped me.”
“You’re eager to leave him now.”
Rift sounded genuinely anguished. “I’d been to that colony tree ten times over the turns, I used to shelter there. That court must have been gone for generations—”
Moon let go of him and started down again. Rift’s story cut far too close to the bone. “It was. But they were attacked by Fell. They— We had to move back to the colony tree.”
Rift caught up with him, his claws scraping the wall. “You’re a consort. What are you doing here alone?”
Moon didn’t answer, and Rift froze for a moment in startled realization. “You’re not alone. There are others.”
Chapter Twelve
Not much further down the air shaft, they reached a grate that opened into a small dim room, most of it blocked by the bulk of another stove. Unlike the one on the upper floor, it was giving off warmth, and it smelled faintly of fish oil. “This way,” Rift said, tugging at the grate.
Moon set his claws in a crack in the wall and looked down. The scents of outdoor air still came from below them. “There’s a way out further down.”
“It’s too small. And the warding barrier blocks it, like the big doors on the ground floor.” Rift eased the grate open and climbed out to clamber over the stove. “We have to get to a passage under the tower.”
Moon growled in the back of his throat, mostly in frustration. He believed in the barrier outside the tower. After running into it yesterday, he knew how effective it was. But he wanted to get out of here and figure out where the seed was before Ardan moved it again.
He climbed out after Rift, over the top of the big metal stove. It was hot, but not enough to burn Raksuran scales. The pipes from it led into the dirty patched walls, not up through the ceiling. It might be keeping the air in the exhibit hall dry to help preserve Ardan’s collection.
Rift jumped from the top of the stove to land near the heavy door. He opened it just enough to peer out. Easing up behind him, Moon stretched to see over his head. The door opened into a gray stone corridor, high-ceilinged and a little better lit. They were somewhere under the main stairwell, on the second level. Moon caught the distinctive odor of decay from the stuffed specimens in the exhibit hall.
Rift slipped out and led the way through a maze of hallways, passing closed doors. They came out on a little balcony and crouched to see over the heavy balustrade. It overlooked the shadowy first floor hall, lit by only a few vapor-lamps. They were distressingly close to the angry face of the giant waterling. Its dead, frozen eyes gleamed in the dim light, its fanged mouth a dark cavern.
Moon sensed movement immediately, and spotted one of the bulbous guard-creatures on the floor below. The thing paced back and forth not far from the bottom of the long sweep of stairs, half-hidden by the bulk of the waterling’s tail. Making an impatient snuffling noise, it looked and sounded exactly as if it was casting for a scent, but no one else moved in the shadows.
Rift leaned close and said in a breathless whisper, “Someone’s down there. The wardens don’t appear unless someone comes into the area they’re guarding.”
Rift was right. If the thing had appeared in response to their arrival, it would know where they were. And it seemed certain there was someone near the stairs. Moon whispered back, “We have to get through that room?”
Rift jerked his chin toward the far end of the hall. “The door is behind those stairs.”
Moon motioned Rift to stay back and eased up to perch on the railing, watching the warden pace. This would b
e tricky. As soon as they killed the thing, it would trigger the appearance of others and likely send some sort of warning to Ardan.
Moon waited until the creature moved out of sight, his view of it blocked by the waterling’s right tailfin. Then he jumped, landed on the waterling’s back, and ran lightly down its body. The decaying scales squished unpleasantly underfoot. Peering over the side of the tail, he saw the guard-creature standing at the base of the stairs. Its arms were out and it was moving slowly forward, as if trying to corner something. Except nothing’s there, Moon thought. At least nothing he could see at the moment.
He made a sharp gesture at Rift. Rift vaulted the balcony railing, landed on the floor, and snapped his wings out for maximum noise. The guard-creature whipped around toward him and Moon leapt to land right on its oversized head.
The creature staggered and roared, clawed for him, and he ripped, tore, and wrenched. Rift hit it an instant later and tore its legs out from under it. The thing collapsed.
Moon shoved away from it, letting Rift finish it off. He turned toward the stairs and the supposedly empty shadow. Cautiously he tasted the air, but between the decaying waterling and the dying creature, scent was useless. But instinct told him something was there, something was occupying space that should be taken up by air.
He lunged forward, slapped at the shadow, and hit solid flesh. A groundling yelped, and suddenly Esom and Karsis sprawled on the steps.
Moon snarled. “So you’re a shaman, too.” The two had been using some sort of spell to conceal themselves. They must have used it to slip away from the guest level in the confusion and flee, while Ardan searched for Moon and Rift. He tilted his head toward Esom. “Is that what ‘deviser’ means?”
Karsis struggled to sit up, shoving her brother off her. Esom stumbled to his feet, “You can’t stop us, we—”
“No time,” Rift told Moon as he shook the creature’s blood off his scales. A clatter sounded from overhead as groundling guards ran across the second level hall to this stairwell. At least two misty shapes forming in the air nearby meant more wardens were about to appear. Rift started toward the curving passage that led under the stairwell.